What are the material issues the company has identified?

In its 2021 Annual and Sustainability Report Alko identified a range of material issues, such as climate change, biodiversity, responsibility for the supply chain, staff diversity. Among these, creating economic value for its stakeholders stands out as a key material issue for Alko.

Stakeholder engagement in accordance with the GRI Standards

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) defines the Principle of Stakeholder Inclusiveness when identifying material issues (or a company’s most important impacts) as follows:

“The reporting organization shall identify its stakeholders, and explain how it has responded to their reasonable expectations and interests.”

Stakeholders must be consulted in the process s of identifying a company’s most important impacts and their reasonable expectations and interests must be taken into account. This is an important cornerstone for CSR / sustainability reporting done responsibly.

Key stakeholder groups Alko engages with:

Stakeholder Group	Method of engagement
Customers	·      Customer surveys ·      Customer feedback ·      In-store events ·      Newsletters ·      Customer magazine ·      Trend report ·      Websites and social media
Owner, political decision-makers and supervisory authorities (National Supervisory Authority for Welfare and Health Valvira and Regional State Administrative Agencies)	·      Contacts ·      Meetings ·      Working groups ·      Websites ·      Corporate Social Responsibility Report and Annual Report
Organisations, networks and local communities	·      Meetings ·      Working groups and other cooperation with civic and employee organisations and organisations in the environmental, social and health sectors both in Finland and internationally ·      Websites ·      Corporate Social Responsibility Report and Annual Report
Personnel	·      Meeting practices that comply with the management system ·      Coaching ·      Involvement in projects and development work ·      Personnel surveys, indicators and reports ·      Internal communications, websites and social media
Goods suppliers	·      Procurement terms and conditions for supplier cooperation ·      Continual cooperation and regular meetings, producer visits and events ·      Seminars, audits and training as part of Alko’s responsibility-related cooperation ·      Supplier surveys ·      Meetings with industry organisations both in Finland and abroad ·      Websites, Corporate Social Responsibility Report and Annual Report
Lessors	·      Annual meetings ·      Reviews of investment plans and schedules ·      Social media and websites
Media	·      Media bulletins and briefings ·      Supplier tastings ·      Interviews, websites and social media ·      Visits ·      Corporate Social Responsibility Report and Annual Report
Research bodies	·      Research projects ·      Financial support for Finnish research ·      Information sharing ·      Events ·      Lectures and websites

How stakeholder engagement was made to identify material issues

To identify and prioritise material topics Alko engaged with its stakeholders through an online survey.

What actions were taken by Alko to create economic value for its stakeholders?

In its 2021 Annual and Sustainability Report Alko reports that it took the following actions for creating economic value for its stakeholders:

• Creating economic value for employees
• In 2021, Alko paid EUR 86.1 million for personnel salaries and fees.

• Creating economic value for goods suppliers and service providers
• In 2021, Alko paid EUR 1,130.8 million to goods suppliers and service providers.

• Creating economic value for owners
• In 2021, Alko paid EUR 60.0 million in dividends.

• Creating economic value for society
• In 2021, Alko paid EUR 85.8 million in tax.

Which GRI Standards and corresponding Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have been addressed?

The GRI Standard addressed in this case is: Disclosure 201-1 Direct economic value generated and distributed

Disclosure 201-1 Direct economic value generated and distributed corresponds to:

• Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
• Targets: 8.1, 8.2
• Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
• Targets: 9.1, 9.4, 9.5

 

78% of the world’s 250 largest companies report in accordance with the GRI Standards

SustainCase was primarily created to demonstrate, through case studies, the importance of dealing with a company’s most important impacts in a structured way, with use of the GRI Standards. To show how today’s best-run companies are achieving economic, social and environmental success – and how you can too.

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References:

This case study is based on published information by Alko, located at the link below. For the sake of readability, we did not use brackets or ellipses. However, we made sure that the extra or missing words did not change the report’s meaning. If you would like to quote these written sources from the original please revert to the following link:

https://www.alko.fi/INTERSHOP/static/WFS/Alko-OnlineShop-Site/-/Alko-OnlineShop/en_US/pdf_t/2021_Alko_VSK_ENG_FINAL.pdf

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